Carson Comes Back For One More Game

SPOKANE — After 32 years of coaching football, Dave Carson retired as the head coach at Gonzaga Prep after last season. But he’s back for one more game.

When the East team takes the field Thursday night in the All-State football game at Central Valley, Carson will be the man in charge for the last time.

“I’ve been doing this for a long god dang time,” he says. “I told some of these kids I’m old enough to be some of their grandfather.”

Carson’s been a coach for so long, that’s he’s comfortable here. But he admits that the All-State team is a little different.

“We were doing quarterback-receiver drills,” Carson says. “I kept thinking, OK, I gotta say something, and then they didn’t put a ball on the ground and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s right this is All-Star practice’.”

The fun part in all of this is that Carson will be coaching several players from the GSL that he’s coached against the past four years, and they want to send him out on top.

“I like Carson,” says Jeff Minnerly, who played at Ferris. “It was fun competing against him and it’s gonna be fun playing with him.”

“It’s an honor,” says Lewis & Clark’s Alex Shaw. “I love the man to death, he’s a great man and hopefully we’ll send him out with a victory.”

Game day is always the best part for a player or coach, and Carson already has his pre-game speech figured out.

“I remember Dave Pomanti said at Rogers, building memories, look back at this when you’re my age and say gosh, I played in the All-State game and don’t want to embarrass myself,” Carson says. “Play hard, play together, have fun and just score one more point than they do.”

A simple approach from a great coach..